by Carl Ingalls

I once read an article (by Seth Godin I think) about the difficulty of selling something that requires prospects to give up long-held or cherished beliefs.  The author had only two solutions for this problem.

• Try to overwhelm them with logic and evidence that proves your idea is better.
• Try to make your product or idea seem like a less radical departure from what they believe.

There is a third approach that he did not mention, and this is to find people who are already beginning to question their beliefs.

Of course, this is the problem of High Probability Selling.  It is based upon several very radical ideas that contradict very strongly held beliefs.

We already know that persuasion is counterproductive when applied in the prospecting or selling process.  It also appears to be ineffective in the marketing process.  People react negatively to being pushed.  The harder you try to convince someone to change their mind, the less they trust you.

So how do we find people who are already questioning the belief that persuasion is a good way to get people to buy from you?

Post Script:  The article by Seth Godin mentioned in this blog post is “Gravity is just a theory” and was posted on his blog in December 2008.  I have deviated from his original words substantially.